Granted Patent B2

US 10,478,016 · App. 15/170,117 · Granted Nov 19, 2019

Inventors: John D McLemore (Hamilton, GA); Joseph L Turner (Butler, GA); Adam Carter (Auburn, AL); Robert Terrell (Waverly, AL); Daniel Mercer (West Point, GA)

Assignee: Masterbuilt Manufacturing, Inc.

A47J37/0727A23B4/052

Abstract

Claims (19)

1. A gas-fired smoker for cooking a food product using a smoking process comprising:

a. a cabinet with a top, a bottom, sides, a back, an access door, and at least one rack vertically located within the cabinet for holding the food product to be cooked;

b. a gas burner located adjacent the bottom and connected to a source of flammable gas by means of a gas valve;

c. a pilot light for igniting the flammable gas at the gas burner; and

d. a control circuit including:

i. a controller;

ii. a DC power source for powering the control circuit including the controller;

iii. a temperature set module connected to the controller for setting a cabinet temperature value for the cabinet temperature inside the cabinet;

iv. a temperature sensor connected to the controller for sensing the cabinet temperature inside the cabinet, wherein the temperature sensor is located in the cabinet at a position representative of the average temperature within the cabinet based on averaging a plurality of different temperatures measured in the cabinet;

v. a display connected to the controller;

vi. wherein the controller:

(a) in response to sensing the cabinet temperature and based on the cabinet temperature value set by the temperature set module, controls the gas valve to start the gas burner and to extinguish the gas burner in order to maintain a range of cabinet temperatures related to the cabinet temperature value set by the temperature set module; and

(b) controls the display to display parameters selected from the cabinet temperature inside the cabinet, status of the gas burner, status of the pilot light, status of the source of flammable gas, or status of the DC power source.

2. The gas-fired smoker of claim 1 , further comprising a time set module for setting a cooking time value relating to a time required to cook the food product and wherein the controller in response achieving the cooking time value set by the time set module extinguishes the gas burner and wherein the controller controls the display to display parameters selected from an elapsed cooking time or a remaining cooking time.

3. The gas-fired smoker of claim 2 , wherein the cooking time value is determined by the controller using lookup tables that include parameters selected from the cabinet temperature value, the kind of food being smoked, the weight of the food being smoked, or the user preference for results of the smoking process.

4. The gas-fired smoker of claim 1 , further comprising a probe temperature set module for setting a probe cooking temperature value for the food product based on user preference and wherein the controller, in response to achieving the probe cooking temperature value set by the probe temperature set module, extinguishes the gas burner and wherein the controller controls the display to display a current probe cooking temperature.

5. The gas-fired smoker of claim 1 , wherein the DC power source includes a rechargeable battery pack and wherein the smoker further includes a thermal electric generator for converting heat from the gas burner into electric power for recharging the rechargeable battery pack.

6. The gas-fired smoker of claim 5 , wherein the thermal electric generator is a Seebeck thermal electric generator.

7. The gas-fired smoker of claim 5 , wherein the DC power source includes a USB port for powering external devices.

Assignments (8)

Continuity (2)

Cited By (11)

US 1,063,483 US 1,063,487 US 1,091,214 US 1,101,580 US 12,196,423 US 12,396,070 US 12,398,884 US 12,446,730 US 12,478,213 US 12,502,033 US 12,708,237